National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)

Flat Rock, North Carolina

Chapter History

The Abraham Kuykendall Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was organized in February 1996. We organized with 19 members, and we now have over 100 members.

The work of our chapter is focused on Education, Historical Preservation, and Patriotism.

Abraham Kuykendall

Our chapter is named for Abraham Kuykendall, a Revolutionary War soldier and patriot. Abraham moved into western North Carolina through the famous Cumberland Gap with his parents in 1719. He married his first wife, Elizabeth, about 1743 and fathered eleven children between 1755 and 1792.

Abraham Kuykendall is listed as a member of the North Carolina Militia in 1770 during the Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Safety Committee for Tryon County, North Carolina, from July, 26, 1775. Historical records show Abraham listed in Tryon County as Captain Kuykendall in July 1776.

Shortly after the Revolutionary War began, he was also appointed Commissioner of Tryon County, responsible for building a courthouse, prison, and stocks, and for establishing a boundary line between Tryon and Mecklenburg Counties. He also became Justice of the Peace of Tryon County in December of 1778, and continued in these roles when Rutherford County was formed during or after the Revolutionary War.

Abraham Kuykendall’s life spans the colonial, revolutionary, and frontier eras of the United States. His story includes a legend of his ghost — a solitary figure of an old man in a one-horse wagon, said to haunt a creek called Pheasant Branch near Flat Rock. The legend says he is still searching for a pot of gold he buried there, and which he appears to have died trying to retrieve.

Read the “Story and Legend“ of Abraham Kuykendall, under the link to the left.

The DAR Insignia is the property of, and is copyrighted by, the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Web hyperlinks to non-DAR sites are not the responsibility of the NSDAR, the state organizations, or individual DAR chapters.